II. Materials and Techniques of Manuscript    Production  ^Credits

 9. Bookbinding

Binding of the book is the last stage in producing a manuscript. A book was not yet ready for the customer when the artist had completed the illumination. It was still in loose gatherings and perhaps even dismembered further into separate pairs of leaves. These all had to be collected up, reassembled into order, and held together in some serviceable binding. In the late Middle Ages this would be the task of the stationer or bookseller and when a commercial bookbinder can be identified by name, he often proves to have been a stationer. This was the person who had taken the order for the manuscript in the first place and who had distributed the gatherings among the illuminators of the town. It was now the stationer's task to call in the various parts of the book, clean them up (erasing guide words and smudges left over from the various stages of manufacture), assemble them in sequence according to the signatures or catchwords, and to bind the book for the client. In the earlier Middle Ages, when books were mostly made by monks, the binding was carried out by whatever member of the community was able to do so. Quite often catalogues of monastic libraries include a shelf or two of unbound books, sometimes described as in quaternis, which presumably means stitched into some kind of wrappers rather than literally in loose quires. From the earliest times when manuscripts were first made in book form, rather than as rolls or tablets, the gatherings were held together by sewing thread through the central fold. The book is a stack of gatherings joined one to another with the sewing of the first and last gatherings knotted into the covers. Greek and Oriental bindings were basically like this, and so were the earliest monastic bindings of western Europe.
 
 

Through most of the Middle Ages, however, manuscripts were sewn onto bands or thongs or cords running at right angles horizontally across the spine. The stitching of each gathering goes through the centre fold and around the band, through the centre fold again and out around the next band, back through the centre fold again, and so on. The next gathering is the same, and the next, and the next, until all the gatherings are attached securely to the thongs across their spines.

From at least the twelfth century the stitching was done with the help of a sewing frame. This is a wooden contraption, rather like a gate, which stands upright on the bench. The bands for the spine are tied to it vertically, suspended from the top and bottom of the frame. The first gathering of the manuscript is placed on the bench with its spine up against these taut bands and is sewn through its centre and around the bands. Then the next gathering is placed on top, tapped down with a block of wood to keep the result firm and tight, and is sewn around the bands, and so on, one after the other, until all the book is there lashed by its spine to the frame. Sewing is the most time-consuming part of binding. Methods of actually stitching the gatherings varied from century to century and place to place, sometimes a herring-bone stitch, sometimes a kettle stitch, sometimes going round the band once, or twice round it, or through splits in the bands themselves. When the sewing is complete, the bands can be untied from each end of the frame. The book may feel loose and swivel rather easily, and this can be tightened up (as it was in the later Middle Ages) by sewing on stout headbands along the top and bottom edge of the spine.

The boards of medieval manuscripts were generally made of wood. Oak was commonly used in England and France; beech was usual in Italy, or pine, and bound Italian manuscripts feel lighter than northern books. Occasionally the boards were made of leather. The use of pasteboards(a kind of cardboard formed of layers of waste paper or parchment glued together), can be followed infrequently through the Middle Ages and from the late fourteenth century became more and more common in southern Europe, in Spain and into Italy in Bologna, Milan, and later Padua. The boards, of whatever material, were squared up into the shape of the book. In earlier manuscripts the boards were cut flush with the edges of the pages; after about 1200 they began to project beyond the edges and were often bevelled on their edges. The bands on the back of the sewn gatherings were threaded into the boards. Frequently some kinds of flyleaves were added at each end of the book (these explain the cost of extra vellum in bookbinders' bills), sometimes reusing waste leaves of old obsolete manuscripts. The bands can be attached into the boards by several methods, varying with time and place, but the basic method is the same. The ends of the bands were secured into the boards by hammering in wooden pegs or, sometimes in Italy, with nails. The manuscript is now within plain boards, and was usable left like this. Usually, however, the outside of the book was covered with leather, tanned, and sometimes dyed.

On a few Carolingian books, bindings have simple stamped patterns on the leather. There was a fashion for stamped bindings in northern France in the later twelfth century, and bindings ornamented with little tools exist (but are unusual) from the thirteenth and fourteenth century. Then around 1450 the practice became much more common. Sides of bindings from then on were frequently ornamented with repeated impressions of floral or animal devices. This is done with a metal tool on a wooden handle. The tool is heated. The binder grasps the handle in both hands and leans over the binding and pushes down, holding the handle close to his chest and chin, rocking slightly one way and then the other, and then lifts the tool quickly up. No great pressure is needed to leave a neat crisp blind impression. These were arranged in rows, or in lattice or other patterns. The outside of the binding was often fitted then with metal bosses or protective cornerpieces, and usually with some kind of clasp to hold the book shut. Folded parchment, however well creased, is springy and inclined to cockle in varying temperatures and humidities unless it is held securely shut by the gentle pressure of clasps. Medieval books were sometimes enclosed further in loose jackets, called chemise, which wrap around the fore-edge and keep out the dust. Far more frequently than the surviving medieval bindings suggest, manuscripts may have been covered with textiles and brocades (which have mostly long-since perished) or with precious metals and jewels (which have mostly been removed with motives of varying legitimacy) or with enamels or paintings. Medieval inventories often describe bindings, since the outside of a book is a simple guide to its recognition, and give the impression that the private libraries of rich men or the treasuries of great churches were filled with multicoloured and elaborate and precious bindings. The craftsmanship of such bindings takes us beyond the work of the stationer and into the shops of the jeweller or enameller.